A haulage boss today said his family had lived through a nightmare after a trusted family friend ripped them off and took almost £50,000.

Terry Saunders spoke out after attending a confiscation hearing to recover money stolen from his firm by wages clerk Andrea Boardman.

Boardman, 48, fiddled the books at Wyke-based T Saunders and Son Ltd Transport where she worked for 11 years.

Regarded as "one of the family" the mother of two was siphoning off about £1,000 a week into her own bank account.

Boardman, whose partner is a Bradford police detective, was jailed for 12 months in April.

Now out of prison, she has been ordered to pay T Saunders and Son her half of the sale income from the home in Fairway Grove, Wibsey, she shares with her husband.

She returned to Leeds Crown Court yesterday to hear Judge Rodney Grant order her to hand over £30,677 within six months or as soon as the house was sold.

Danielle Graham, for the prosecution, said Boardman was convicted of five charges of theft and asked for 161 further offences to be considered when she was sentenced on April 25.

She had stolen £47,856 and the agreed benefit from her dishonesty was £49,873, taking into account extra expenses.

Miss Graham said Boardman's only assets were her share of the house and a NatWest pension plan that could not be released.

The court heard in April that Boardman was held in such high regard by the Saunders family that company secretary Diane Saunders planned to make a will entrusting her children to her care if she and her husband Philip should die.

The thefts were discovered by chance when Mrs Saunders, 42, checked the payroll after a driver complained his wage packet was incorrect.

Philip's father Terry, 68, the firm's managing director, said Boardman had "stabbed them in the back".

He and his wife Margaret, a retired nurse, had remortgaged their home in Whitehall Road, Wyke, to ensure the survival of the business. Mr Saunders, a former magistrate, told how he built up his company after buying just one truck.

His family had found a part-time job for Boardman as she was Diane's friend. Mr Saunders said she was then taken on full-time and made wages clerk three years ago.

"She started fiddling within a week or two of being promoted. Eventually, we were doing virtually the same amount of work for no profit," he said.

He recalled Boardman paying for her garden to be landscaped and showing off a new laptop and "fancy camera" while she was fleecing the family.

He said some staff had taken a pay cut to tide the business over. "It's been a nightmare. We employ family people with kids and mortgages," he said.

"We've lost a lot of money over the years from other people's companies going bust so all we needed was to be betrayed by a family friend. She's taken that money from the future of the company."

He said that, although Boardman's pension was not included in the confiscation order, the provision for his own retirement "is not what it was".

Mr Saunders said times had been difficult but the firm was now on the road to recovery. "Although this has been devastating we have worked our way through it - we are all optimists at heart." he said.

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